Last month volunteers Jennifer Dobson and Shelby McGregor drove a family mission to help us deliver 1600 dinners to the kids in our programs, and their families, now at home because of lockdown.
Over two weekends, each family worked together to coordinate meal pick-up, map delivery routes and do door-to-door contactless dinner drop-offs to 151 families throughout the GTA.
Left: Jen Dobson with her sons James and Charlie. Right: The McGregor boys: Mack, Dash and James
Jen’s sons James and Charlie came on board to help her with the deliveries, and Shelby’s three boys Mack, James, and Dash assisted their dad Duncan on the routes. All of the nutritious dinners were provided by our partnership with Real Food Kitchen and funded by one of our generous donors.
We launched our Feeding Canadian Kids at Home program immediately after the first provincial lockdown last March, and have continued to provide meals to kids and their families at home as additional after-school program closings have taken place.
“There’s a lot of food-insecurity because of the pandemic and it made us feel productive and helpful to work together as a family,” says Jen, who has also been volunteering as a “Host Family” in our Families Feeding Families pilot project over the past ten months. “Delivering the dinners gave us a connection to the families and illustrated how we are all in this together.”
The McGregor family recently joined our Families Feeding Families program as a Host Family and found their delivery experience to be seamless and rewarding.
“The best surprise was the warm welcome and greeting we received from the family. Often they would all come to the door to say thank you or “God bless.’, says Duncan.
“We set out to gain community hours and finished with so much more!”
A BIG BIG THANK YOU TO BOTH FAMILIES FOR THEIR ONGOING HELP AND SUPPORT!